Apparatus for casting chocolate, cream and other confectionery paste



Dec. 12, 1950 K. c. s. AASTED 2,533,703

APPARATUS vFOR CASTING CHOCOLATE, CREAM AND OTHER CQNFECTIONERY PASTE Filed July 5 1947 INVENTORQ f4/ Gyms 7 4/v JO/OA/Z/J'AAJTED Patented Dec. 12, 1950 APPARATUS FOR CASTING CHOCOLATE,

CREAM AND OTHER CONFECTIONERY PASTE Kai Christian Sophus Aasted, Gentofte, Denmark Application July 5, 1947, Serial No. 759,260 In Denmark July 10, 1946 2 Claims.

This invention relates to an apparatus of the type used for casting chocolate, cream, and other confectionery paste by means of a cylindrical container, provided with casting pistons and appurtenant casting nozzles, and having a mechanically operated revolving valve member with chambers which alternately connect the casting pistons and their cylinders with an upper feeder and the said nozzles.

In the known apparatus of this type, the entire cylindrical part of the surface of the revolving valve member is supported by the wall of the container, but as the mechanical devices operating the revolving valve member impart to the latter an eccentric effect at each movement, it will wear the wall of the container in the course of time and itself be worn at the ends, whereby sugar crystals may easily be forced in between the valve member and the container wall where they sinter, forming a hard greyish coating, which can only be removed in an effective manner by boiling the container; and leaks are formed causing a reduction of the quantities of chocolate cast through the nozzles located at the farthest side at either end of the valve member.

To prevent the cast articles from being short in weight, the manufacturer must lengthen the stroke of the casting pistons, but as the stroke of each individual piston cannot as a rule be adjusted, the consequence is that the articles cast through the central nozzles will be rather heavy and cause a loss to the manufacturer.

These disadvantages due to uneven wear of the apparatus and a resulting growing inaccuracy of the casting are remedied by this invention b the fact that the valve member is provided with two bearings, one at either end, and by a groove being provided between the rest of the cylindrical surface of the valve member and the cylindrical container, which groove is so wide I that sintering of sugar crystals in it is avoided, yet so narrow that the necessary tightness is preserved. In practice, for example, this groove or clearance between the valve member 3 and the cylinder 4 does ordinarily not need to exceed mm. and may generally be between /1000 mm. and corresponding to the sizes of the sugar crystals in the confectionery masses commonly encountered. Thus wear due to friction between the valve member and the container is completely avoided, and therefore the said inaccuracies do not occur.

By performing the invention in a special manner, the valve member may be suspended in bearings of the ball or roller bearing type, whereby the bearing friction is reduced to a minimum, and thereby the exact centering of the valve member in the container is best secured.

An apparatus constructed according to the invention is shown in the drawing.

Fig. 1 shows a vertical cross section through a casting container along the line 1-1 in Fig. 2, and

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section through the same along the line IIII in Fig. 1.

From a funnel shaped feeder I the chocolate paste glides down into chambers 2 in a revolving valve member 3 in a cylindrical container 4 when the valve member is in the position shown by the dotted line 5 in Fig. 1. By pistons 6 the paste is drawn into casting cylinder 1, and when subsequently the valve member is turned to the position shown by the fully drawn line 3 in Fig. 1, the pistons 6 force the paste out through nozzles 9 at the bottom of the container 4 in certain measured quantities.

The valve member 3 is moved mechanically by a crank Ill and connecting rod II at one end of the valve member. At either end the latter is carried in a ball bearing l2, which, by means of caps I4, is fixed in the end walls l3 of the container 4. Hereby friction between the cylindrical surface of the valve member and the container A is avoided, as they are placed at such distance from one another that tightness is obtained, thus preventing the paste from forcing its way through, yet at the same time sugar crystals are positively prevented from sintering in the space between the two cylindrical surfaces.

Having now described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. Apparatus for casting chocolate, cream and other confectionery paste, which comprises a cylindrical container, a feeder bin communicating therewith, said container being provided with casting pistons and complementary casting nozzles, a mechanically operated valve member positioned in said cylindrical container, bearings supporting each end of said valve member independently of said cylindrical container whereby to maintain it in predetermined spaced relationship with the inner surface of the said cylindrical container, said valve member being provided with chambers whereby to connect the casting cylinders alternately with the feeder bin and the casting nozzles, and a predetermined clearance being provided between the outer surface of said Valve member and the inner surface of said cylindrical container sufilciently great to prevent sintering of sugar crystals contained in the confectionery masses processed in the apparatus while maintaining the tightness necessary to confine the said confectionery mass.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the said bearings are ball bearings and the said clearance is sufficientf to, prevent sintering of sugar crystalseup to mm. in size.

KAI CHRISTIAN SOPHUS AASTED.

4 REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,477,857 Vierow Dec. 18, 1923 1,696,845 Hislop Dec. 25, 1928 

